Okay, well, although the wait was longer than I'd expected, the next chapter is finally here. I hope you enjoy it!

Shikamaru woke up with a yawn. His sensei had been gone for 3 days now, and there was no sign of him as all. Ino was almost better, though. She had been coughing less and was not nearly as warm as she had been.

Scratching his head, Shikamaru yawned again and flopped himself up. He walked outside and realized something amazing.

"Wow, I was the first to get up…"

He scratched his butt and sat on the beach, twiddling with sand and occasionally trying to make a fire with sticks. Eventually, he got tired of it and took a walk in the jungle. That's when he heard the noise.

It sounded like some sort of chittering and beeping, like a small, broken machine. Curious, Shikamaru stepped through the underbrush to find the source of the noise. His eyes turned bright when he saw a moving figure holding a beeping object in his hands.

Shikamaru stepped into the clearing where the figure sat fumbling with the object and tapped him on the shoulder. With a loud yelp, the seemingly rabid figure turned around. He had fuzzy, uncombed hair and squinty eyes, and looked like he hadn't taken a shower or brushed his teeth in weeks. His teeth chattered even though it wasn't cold at all. He wore tattered clothes with holes and grass stains. He looked oddly familiar, but he was so out of shape that he was unrecognizable….wait, was it…?

"Kabuto…?"

The boy stopped chattering his teeth and dropped the object. Squinting his eyes even more (he didn't have his glasses), a smile spread wide across his face as he shouted, "People!"

"What are you doing here, Kabuto? How did you get here?"

The boy scratched his head and picked a bug out, then continued to scratch. Finally, he said, "I was on a plane…and, he crashed…about two weeks ago."

Shikamaru realized that his group's plane had crashed two weeks ago, too.

"Was it flight 79?"

"Yes! Yes! How did you know?"

"Follow me!" Shikamaru shouted, tugging on Kabuto's arm. The boy scrambled and picked up his machine and ran with Shikamaru.

"What is that device, anyway? Is it…Kabuto, is that a radio?!" (The kind that you communicate through)

The boy smiled and nodded, but then his expression quickly turned blank when he explained that it wasn't working right. Shikamaru groaned when he realized that the only person in their group who was relatively good with machines was himself.

"Looks like I'll have to fix it, then…"

Neji was the next to wake up. He blinked open his eyes and narrowed them to see better.

"Hn."

He was about to get up when he realized that Tenten was still asleep, holding onto his waist. Any big movement would probably wake her, so…

Beep. Beep.

Neji perked up his ears to listen closer. What was that sound that he had heard…?

Beep. Beep.

Tenten's eyes popped open.

"Neji…? What's that?"

"I don't know, Tenten, but I'm not waiting to find out." He said as he hopped up. Tenten drowsily followed him as he rushed outside of the tent. On the beach were Shikamaru and…Kabuto?

"Hey! Shikamaru! When did-"

The pineapple-headed kid looked up from the machine and spotted the other two. Kabuto's eyes grew bright when as he shouted, "More people!"

Kabuto quickly rushed towards the other two, eager to meet somebody other than the boring fruit over there. He hugged Tenten and turned to shake Neji's hand, but burped in his face. Neji scowled and dismissed the thought of shouting at him, and instead asked him when he came and where he came from.

"Eh, well…I was on the same flight you were on, just in the other section of the plane. I was the only survivor on that end, because my medical ninjutsu wasn't enough to save anyone else. I found a radio from the plane, and I tried contacting people, but there's no reception."

Neji frowned and looked at Shikamaru, who held the radio, then turned his gaze back to the beat-up boy.

"Eh, you might want to take a swim, Kabuto. You smell. Bad."

Naruto peeked his eyes open at the series of sounds coming from outside. He woke up the rest of his team, and they went out to have breakfast. They sat around a fire that Kakashi had made, and began to feast on barely-cooked shellfish. Naruto ripped and tore at the rubbery piece of hardly edible meat and grinded his teeth into it to trey and tear it into two pieces. It was to no avail.

"Can't you cook them longer, Kakashi-sensei?"

"No. If you want it to be less chewy, you cook it yourself."

"Aww, but Kakashi-sensei!"

"Shut up, Naruto, before you make my headache any worse."

Naruto grinned and said, "So, Kakashi-sensei, you snuck into the alcohol again last night, didn't you?"

"Shut up."

Gaara woke up to an odd smell. It was half seafood and half rotten armpits. He looked outside and saw both. Grabbing a piece of food without asking first, he went into the sea where Kabuto was and smacked him.

"Stop smelling."

Kabuto pouted and rubbed his face as Gaara went back to his tent. Neji frowned again and muttered, "Gosh, he's grumpy."

Tenten put her hand on Neji's shoulder and replied, "I think it's because of what happened during the storm…"

Gaara pushed Gai aside on the way back to his tent, who in turn shouted, "It's okay to be angry, Gaara! Everybody gets in a bad mood sometimes!"

The boy turned around and glared.

"Act hurt. It will make me feel better."

Gai raised an eyebrow and made a little, "hunh?" noise, but quickly began to fake-cry and shout, "My leg!"

"Kids" Kabuto muttered as he asked a nearby Hinata to give him a backrub.. She did so, but frowned and gagged the entire time.

"Okay, Hinata, now just a wee bit lower…Oh! Yeah! Right there! Scrub harder! HARDER!"

Hinata rubbed harder and harder until her hands felt numb. She frowned and rubbed them together.

"Thanks, Hinata. That feels much better now! You should consider doing that for money!"

"I'm not so sure I'd want to…"

"But you're so good at it…!"

"Uh, um…maybe…"

She sighed as Kabuto advertised her rubbing amongst the group, and a line began to form. She looked at her hands and frowned. Would Naruto get in line…?

Gaara sat cross-legged in his tent, grumbling and pounding the ground. Gai poked his head in, but immediately poked it back out when he saw Gaara's expression. Eventually, he just walked in and sat down next to Gaara.

"You know, death is natural, Gaara. I understand that you-"

"What the heck are you talking about?"

"Well, you seem upset about what happened on that one day, so I was just-"

"You're confusing me! I'm only angry because Sasuke took the last muffin!"

Gai slumped down with a confused expression.

"…Oh."

He awkwardly stepped out of the tent and walked to where Kakashi and Kurenai were.

Kakashi groggily slung out his book and once again started about how great Dan Brown is. Kurenai had finally gotten him to tell where the kids had hidden the alcohol from her and was happily getting herself hopelessly drunk. Gai decided that it wasn't a good time to have a conversation with either of them, because he didn't care much for Dan Brown or Samuel Adams, but stayed anyway.

"This book is so compelling. It has so much drama, action, love, and adventure! How could anyone not like Dan Brown?!" (The author personally doesn't care much for him)

Kurenai began to stay back and forth, and her face grew pale. She dropped the bottle, which splashed its contents all over her. Gai sighed.

THIS is why I like youth…

Kabuto popped up beside him and said, "Boo!"

"Aaaaaiiiiii!" Gai shouted as he fell over in shock. Kakashi's eyes widened and he uttered a little, "Eep!", and Kurenai's face grew even more pale.

"Oops. Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you, funny-looking dude!"

Gai suddenly had a very serious expression on his face. He slowly picked himself up and creaked his head to face Kabuto.

"I'm…not…weird-looking."

"Fine, fine. Funny-looking."

Gai shouted in rage as he ran after Kabuto, who screamed in a high-pitched voice and ran like the devil was chasing him.

"You…are…not…YOUTHFUL!"

Naruto relaxed in the water, getting a massage from Hinata. He had to admit, his turn seemed longer than the others, but did the others have to shout at them because of it?

"Hurry up, Hinata!"

"Come on, we can't wait all day!"

"Sheesh, why does his turn get to be so much longer?"

Naruto turned around and shouted as loud as he could, "Stop pressuring her!"

The others stopped and scattered away. Hinata trembled and covered her ears. Eventually, she stopped and continued the backrub.

"Ahh…thanks, Hinata…"

"Um, u-uh…no problem, Naruto…"